By Miles Gofaster
A small but determined group of swimmers, cyclists, and runners either from or connected to Coffee County traveled to Waycross Saturday morning for the annual Splash, Mash, and Dash Triathlon and Duathlon at Laura Walker State Park. While everyone brought home age group awards, first timers Kate Merritt (triathlon) and Loyd Amerson (duathlon) headlined the day with second-place overall finishes.
For the triathletes, the race starts in the lake at the state park with a 400-meter swim. From there it’s on to the bike portion, which this year was shortened to 10 miles (it’s usually a little over 13) due to road construction around the park. The final leg is a three mile out and back run going back toward U.S. 1. Duathletes do the same course with the exception of the swim; instead of starting off in the water, they run a mile.
Merritt is a Coffee High graduate and a junior at West Point, where she runs cross country. She hadn’t done any triathlon-specific training until a few weeks ago when she decided to do the race. However, she did do some swimming as a middle schooler. While that was a long time ago, swimming in a competitive environment stays with an athlete. And being an elite runner gave her an advantage before the race even started.
Merritt hit the water and turned in an impressive 10:21 swim (the swim time includes a long run from the water into the transition area). The bike would be toughest part of the race for her. Merritt was on a borrowed bike and hadn’t done a lot of bike-specific training. She posted a 33:57 bike split – which wasn’t bad at all – then headed out on the run.
If you want to do well in triathlon, you have to run fast. And nobody in the race – male or female – ran faster than Merritt. She blistered the run course in 18:45, which was far and away the fastest run of the day. The overall winner, 22-year-old Ivan Barr of St. Simons, managed a 21:13.
In any other year, Merritt would have won the women’s race easily. But this year, Angela Shiver of Savannah showed up. She is a seasoned triathlete who has won a pile of races. Just 40 seconds separated Shiver and Merritt after the swim. The bike, however, was the difference maker. Shiver even bested Barr on the bike, beating him by 86 seconds. When she hit the run, she had an insurmountable lead over Merritt. Shiver padded her lead with lightning-fast transitions, moving through both less than 90 seconds combined.
Shiver ran a 22:48, right at four minutes slower than Merritt, but her cycling prowess and speed in the transition area were the difference.
Merritt finished the race in 1:05:44, first in her group (Military; she beat two men for the first-place trophy) and about five minutes off of Shiver’s 1:00:55.
Amerson, meanwhile, ran into the same issue that Merritt did. He posted the fifth-fastest run on the one-miler. He turned in a respectable 34:36 bike ride, especially considering that he was on a fat tire bike and not a road bike. The second run is where he moved up in the field. He ran a second-best 23:20 on run #2, much faster than first-place winner Johnathan Smith’s 27:56. Smith, however, rode 30:06, 4:30 faster than Amerson’s 34:36.
During the race, it can be hard to tell who is doing the triathlon or the duathlon. Amerson had no idea that Smith was in first place and that he was just a few seconds ahead of him. Had he known that, the outcome may have been different.
Eleven other Coffee Countians or their family members ran the race. Here is how they finished:
- Dr. Andy Solomon (triathlon): 1:12:10, 2nd in age group
- Laura Solomon (triathlon): 1:20:02, 1st in age group
- Jake Gray (triathlon): 1:28:06, 3rd in age group
- Robert Preston (triathlon): 1:15:16, 1st in age group
- Zean Preston (triathlon): 1:18:14, 3rd in age group
- Heather Preston (triathlon): 1:33:49, 1st in age group
- Chip Lee (triathlon): 1:16:38, 1st in group
- Ron Fields (duathlon): 1:45:46, 2nd in age group
- Jessi Fields (duathlon): 1:45:45, 2nd in age group
- Tracy Smith (duathlon): 1:31:05, 1st in age group
- Chan Gillis (duathlon): 1:59:28, 1st in age group
The Splash, Mash, and Dash race is a fundraiser for Ware County’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter. DRC Sports of Inverness, Fla., manages the event.
Submitted photo